6-7 EDWARD VII., A. 1907

as Frum. Hare prepared their most humble Petition to berewith to Your Lordship) prayand ti ceder 2.45 vernor with the Advice and ConLesen. Avec ly of the People in such manner his royal Wisdom shall think

azd

ajestpuut of his royal and paternal belent Subjects will be

T pinamed to tunne them from the apprehensions they are under That their je majte en sangeren. And that then and the Posterity may lose the fruits wars by restling in a Country w any fiel te stable form of Govern

medinazos wolib may le neither sowdant with nor agreeable to the

we presi

valent to the new as to us his

y of opinion that a power of y of the People is the only perbe established in this Province

an, from their own knowledge ani Experiène fits State since the Conquest, they are L ** 4* the wider an Aventura. ALD Gosen pani Cone, the s* per, th-- Primat or a firm an 1 s lid basis. No

M

in e njunction with his Majesty's itvernment thereof will be settled yar Menorialists apprehend can so eff stially attach and run lle the new Nitects to His Majestys august House and the Britis. Constitation or be so grateful to his Majesty's antient subjects. Your Memorialists euriset tas of their own ina), its will not presume to point out how this Assembly st aid te exposed and constituted. That is a matter in their opinion fitting only for the Wisdom and consideration of his Majesty and his learned Councils. But as it may be advanced 'ow some Persons wiser her are not so well acquainted with the spent State of this Provine as var Memorialists, or whose Interest in the westare of it, is of a more transient nature that it is not yet ripe for an Assembly, That the Kings old Subjects are but few in number, and that they possess but little Property in proportion to the newbjects who are the Body of the People but of the Roman Catholick Communion' Your Memorialists who have well weighed and seriously considered these objections take the Liberty to assure your Lordship that in their humble opinion the Province is at this Time perfectly mature for the Reception of that Establishment, And that an Assembly to act in Conjunction with his Majesty's Governor and Council would in time give much more Satisfaction to the People, would point out more evidently the true Interest of the Colony, its Powers and Resources and be better able, than a Governor and Council, to make Laws Ordinances and Statutes suitable to their own Emergencies. Your Memorialists have the honour to assure your Lordship, That the Number and real Property of his Majesty's antient Subjects are not so triffling as may have been represented, for several of them possess the largest and best cultivated Seigniorys in the Province (The Lan is of the religious Society's excepted) and most of them are proprietors of freehold Estates, Their Personal Estates by far exceed those of the new Subjects. The Trade and Commerce of the Country ever since the Conquest and at this Time being principally carried on by his Majesty's old Subjects.

The Settlement of the legislation of the Colony is not the only object your Memorialists have to request your Lordships Attention to. They beg leave to lay before Your Lordship the deplorable State it is in for want of Protestant Seminarys and Protestant Schools for the Education and Instruction of Youth. It is with regret that they see the rising Generation of Children born of Protestant Parents utterly neglected and daily

See p.347.

2 A partial list of the British owners of lands, including seigniories, in the Province of Quebec, in 1773, is given in the Dartmouth Papers; See Canadian Archives, M 384, p. 233.

Chief Justice Hey, in a letter to the Lord Chancellor given below, says on this point, referring to the English merchants," with whom almost the whole trade of the country lyes, & which without them was & without them will continue except in a very few articles & those to no extent, a country of no trade at all." See Q 12.p.208.

SESSIONAL PAPER No. 18

exposed to the known assiduity of the Roman Catholic Clergy of different Orders who are very numerous in this Province and who from their own immense funds have lately established Seminarys alarming in their foundation (all Protestant Teachers of every Science being excluded therefrom, The Children of British Parents must therefore go without Instruction or attend these, For tho' his Majesty's antient Subjects are willing to contribute to the utmost of their Power to encourage Men of Learning and ability to come to reside among them, Yet that is insufficient without the aid and assistance of Government.

Your Memorialists have also the Honour to represent to Your Lordship, That the Trade Cultivation and Prosperity of the Colony have been much interrupted by the sequestration of the upper Indian trading Posts, Lake Champlain and the Coast of Labradore from this Government, by which not only the natural resources of the Province have been greatly restrained but many of the Inhabitants as well old as new Subjects have thereby been deprived of their personal Property and even of their real Estates which the latter held and enjoyed for many Years before the Conquest and which the former purchased on the faith of the Capitulation and Treaty of Peac, And Your Memorialists will venture to assure Your Lordship That if the Province is not restored to its antient Limits and the parts which have been dismembered from it reunited to that Government to which nature points they should belong, and all be put under some salutary and well judged Regulations. The Morals of the Indians will be debauched, and the Fur-Trade as well as the Winter Seal Fishery for ever lost not only to this Province but to Great Britain, as neither can be carried on to advantage but by the Inhabitants of Canada.

Your Memorialists might add much more in support of the Subject matter of this Memorial as well as on many other Matters very interesting to the Province, but as your Memorialists will not incroach on your Lordships Time and Patience they conclude by humbly and ardently praying your Lordship to be pleased to lay their most humble Petition herewith transmitted before his Majesty and humbly intreating Your Lordships Intercession and good Offices in that behalf as well as in behalf of the other important Objects pointed out to your Lordship in this their Memorial, And reposing themselves entirely on your Lordships known honour, Understanding and Uprightness. They as in Duty bound will ever Pray &cQuebec 31st Decem' 1773.

A Committee named at

a Meeting of his

Majesty's antient Sub

jects residing in the

District of Quebec.

(Original)

Jenkin Williams

John Welles

John Lees

John McCord

Chas Grant

Malcolm ffraser
Zach.macaulay

Endorsed :-Memorial of the Kings Ancient Subjects in the District of Quebec to His Majesty. R/ 1st June 1774.

MEMORIAL FROM MONTREAL TO LORD DARTMOUTH.

To The Right Honorable The Earl of Dartmouth one of His Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State.1

The Memorial of the Freeholders, Merchants, Planters and Others, His Majesty's Antient and Loyal Subjects now in the Province of Quebec,

Sheweth,

That your Lordships Memorialists encouraged by the Capitulation of Canada, confirm'd by the definitive Treaty of Peace and His Majestys Royal Proclamation of 7th of 'Canadian Archives, Q 10, p.63. This, it will be observed, is simply a summary of the preceding petition from Quebec.

yul na Komar Catholic Clergy, of different Uraers, who are very Numerous Cossery and who from ther own me Fonds have later established a sary for the boucation of Youth, in this Fr. vinot, which is the more warming as Protestar: Teachers of azy Science wh&Lever.

Wigenston Your Lord tips Memorialusta tumbly pray that you will be pleased to judit Mate aad Petition, to His Majesty-And so pray Your Loristips Inter96 255 7906 Glom it that beba f.

And Your Longships Memoria ists as in Duty bound shall ever Pray

Endorsel. Memorial of the Kings Ancient Subjects in the District of Montreal to the Earl of Dartmouth, R 1 June 1774.

Lieut. Governor Cramahé

DARTMOUTH TO CRAMAHE.

WHITEHALL May 4th 1774.

SIR,

I have received your Letters No. 13 & 14 & have laid them before the King, together with the two Petitions transmitted therewith.

The Manner in which the Petitioners have expressed their Wishes is decent & respectful, but I am fully convinced from your Account of the Steps taken to procure these Petitions that it was become highly necessary that the Arrangements for the Govern ment of Quebec should be no longer delayed; And I have the Satisfaction to acquaint you that I did on Monday last present to the House of Lords a Bill for the Regulation

Canadian Archives, Q 10, p.55.

Letter No. 13 is that of Cramahé to Dartmouth, of Jan. 19th, 1774, referred to in note 1, p.347, enclosing the petitions to the King. No. 14 is that of Feb. 3rd, 1774, referred to in note 1, p.349.

SESSIONAL PAPER No. 18

of that Government,' which is calculated to lay the Foundation for those Establishments that I hope will give full Satisfaction to all His Majesty's Subjects & remove those difficulties with which the Administration of the Government in that Province has been so greatly embarrassed.

I am &c

DARTMOUTH.

CRAMAHÉ TO DARTMOUTH.2

(N° 17.)

Duplicate. MY LORD!

QUEBEC 15th July 1774.

Your Lordship will herewith receive the Minutes of His Majesty's Council of this Province to the End of June last.

I am Honoured with Your Lordship's Circular Dispatch of 24 March, and one of the 6th April Numbered 11; The Event, which Your Lordship was pleased to notify in the former, affords great Satisfaction to all His Majesty's Loyal Subjects in this Province; I am extremely Happy in receiving my Royal Master's Approbation of my answer to the Petitioners for an Assembly.

His Majesty's old subjects in this Province, tho' collected from all Parts of His extensive Dominions, have in General, at least such as intend remaining in the Country, adopted American Ideas in regard to Taxation, and a Report, transmitted from one of their Correspondents in Britain, that a Duty upon Spirits was intended to be raised here by Authority of Parliament, was a principal Cause of setting them upon petitioning for an Assembly, and endeavouring to engage their Fellow Subjects to join therein. Some of the Committee, with whom I conversed this Spring upon the Subject, acknowledge the Irregularity of their Assembling without the Consent, or Approbation of the King's Governor, that it was an ill example shewen to their Fellow Subjects, whom it was their Interest, if it were only upon Account of their great Superiority in Point of Numbers, to see continue in those Habits of Respect and Submission to which they had been accustomed, and, upon my stating these and some other Reasons in the strongest Manner I could, promised not to engage again in such a Business; From the Temper they seem to be in at present, and the tractable Disposition of the Canadians, I am Hopefull, they will wait with Patience, untill an Opportunity offers for perfecting those Arrangements, they have been made to expect, and which in certain Cases are much wanted, and therefore much to be desired.”

1 The Quebec Bill was introduced in the House of Lords by Lord Dartmouth, May 2nd, 1774.

2 Canadian Archives, Q 10, pp.79-81.

3 Announcing the birth, on Feb. 24th, of Prince Adolphus Frederick, afterwards Duke of Cambridge.

* See Dartmonth to Cramahé, Q 10,p.42, expressing approval of his reply to the petitioners for a House of Assembly.

* The remainder of the despatch refers only to Indian affairs and hence is omitted. 18-3-23

6-7 EDWARD VII., A. 1907

PETITION OF FRENCH SUBJECTS.

A Petition of divers of the Roman-Catholick Inhabitants of the Province of Quebeck to the King's Majesty, signed, and transmitted to the Earl of Dartmouth, his Majesty's Secretary of State for America, about the Month of December, 1773, and presented to his Majesty about the Month of February, 1774.1

Au Roy.

SIRE, Vos très-soûmis et très-fidéles nouveaux sujets de la province de Canada 'prennent la liberté de se prosterner au pied du throne, pour y porter les sentiments 'de respect, d'amour, et de soumission dont leurs cœurs sont remplis envers votre auguste personne, et pour lui rendre de très-humbles actions de grace de ses soins 'paternels.

6

'Nôtre reconnoissance nous force d'avouer que le spectacle effrayant d'avoir été conquis par les armes victorieuses de vôtre Majesté n'a pas longtems excité nos regrets ' et nos larmes. Ils se sont dissipés à mesure que nous avons appris combien il est 'doux de vivre sous les constitutions sages de l'empire Britannique. En effet, loin de ' ressentir au moment de la conquête les tristes effêts de la gêne et de la captivité, le sage et vertueux Général qui nous a conquis, digne image du Souverain glorieux qui 'lui confia le commandement de ses armées, nous laissa en possession de nos loix et de ' nos coûtumes. Le libre exercice de nôtre religion nous fût conservé, et confirmé par 'le traité de paix et nos anciens citoyens furent établis les juges de nos causes civiles. 'Nous n'oublirons jamais cet excès de bonté : ces traits généreux d'un si doux vain'queur seront conservés précieusement dans nos fastes; et nous les transmettrons d'âge 'en âge à nos derniers neveux.-Tels sont, Sire, les doux liens qui dans le principe nous 'ont si fortement attachés à vôtre majesté liens indissolubles, et qui se resserreront 'de plus en plus.

Dans l'année 1764, votre Majesté daigna faire cesser le gouvernement militaire 'dans cette colonie, pour y introduire le governement civil. Et dès l'époque de ce changement nous commençames à nous appercevoir des inconvenients qui résultoient des 'loix Britanniques, qui nous étoient jusqu'alors inconnues. Nos anciens citoyens, qui 'avoient réglé sans frais nos difficultés, furent remerciez: cette milice qui se faisoit une 'gloire de porter ce beau nom sous vôtre empire, fût supprimée. On nous accorda à la ' vérité le droit d'être jurés: mais, en même tems, on nous fit éprouver qu'il y avoit des 6 obstacles pour nous à la possession des emplois. On parla d'introduire les loix d'An'gleterre, infiniment sages et utiles pour la mére-patrie, mais qui ne pourroient s'allier avec nos ccûtumes sans renverser nos fortunes et détruire entiérement nos possessions.— Tels ont été depuis ce tems, et tels sont encore, nos justes sujets de crainte; tempérés 'néanmoins par la douçeur du gouvernement de vôtre Majesté.

Daignez, illustre et généreux Monarque, dissiper ces craintes en nous accordant 'nos anciennes loix, priviléges, et coûtumes, avec les limites du Canada telles qu'elles 'étoient cy-devant. Daignez repandre également vos bontés sur touts vos sujets sans 'distinction. Conservez le titre glorieux de Souverain d'un peuple libre. Eh ne 'seroit-ce pas y donner atteinte, si plus de cent milles nouveaux sujets, soumis à vôtre empire, étoient exclus de vôtre service et privés des avantages inestimables dont jouis'sent vos anciens sujets ?-Puisse le ciel, sensible à nos priéres et nos vœux, faire jouir ' vôtre Majesté d'un regne aussi glorieux que durable! Puisse cette auguste famille

1 This petition, which does not appear among the State Papers, together with the translation of it and the memorial which follows, are taken from Maseres' An Account of the Proceedings" &c. pp.112131. Concerning this Maseres says, It is easy to see that the foregoing petition of the aforesaid French inhabitants of Canada has been made the foundation of the act of parliament above-recited." (The Quebec Act) p.131.

2 See, however, the proclamations of Amherst and Murray, pp.31 & 33.

3 For the basis of this change and the circumstances attending it, see Ordinance of Sept. 17th, 1764 and the notes thereon; p.149.